Alaska Travelogue--Day 16, The End

It's hard to believe that what I'm writing about now only happened a week ago. I have been reading lanakila's posts about his trip to Europe, and he lamented that many small details about his trip are now being lost to the fog of memory even after such a short time. I would have to agree with him that it is sad that the miniscule details of trips get lost over time, but the major good stuff will always remain. I had plenty of intimate moments during the trip which I have hopefully successfully filed away in memory to bring smiles to my face at later times. But before I get too maudlin over lost memories, let me conclude the travelogue with a few of the last details from the trip.

Sunday was chill out day. We had been going full throttle for almost 2 weeks, and now the trip was just about at its end. We slept in a little, caught a late breakfast at the hotel, packed up everything, checked out, and proceeded to do a few things around Anchorage.

First up was the Alaska Zoo which was very enjoyable. It was a combination Rio Grande Zoo and Wildlife West. All of the animals had something to do with northern climates and most were native species. Almost all were also rescue animals i.e. animals with injuries or that were orphaned that could never be returned to the wild. It was a lovely wooded layout with many large species such as bear (black, grizzly, and polar), moose, caribou, wolf, and coyote. They also had a couple of tigers and snow leopards. It was a very nice way to kill an hour or so.

We then went back downtown so that Kitty could pick up some more souvenirs. I had heard a lot about the 5th Ave Mall, so we hunted it down. It was a typical mall with the same lame shops found in every other mall. Lunch was at a local pizzeria/deli. We then headed over to Earthquake Park which I believe was in an old residential area wiped out in '64. We stopped off at a "beach" access point where Scritch and I went for a walk down to the water while Kitty stayed at the car to defend against bums. We were all starting to feel a bit emotionally drained, so we just hit up a local McDonalds to take advantage of $1 sodas and free (Kosher) Internet. Even though we had several hours until our flight we decided to just head over to the airport. By the time we returned the rental van, checked in, and got our anal probing from TSA, it wasn't really all that long just sitting around. There was a nice pub at the airport where we enjoyed beer and fish and chips. Before we knew it it was time to board our POS Airbus to take us to Denver. I think I slept most of the 5 hours. After a brief layover in DIA it was time to board our prop plane to ABQ. We were delayed because some bags from a flight from Anchorage were delayed in being loaded. WTF?!? We had landed over 2 hours ago! Oh well. At least our bags would be there in ABQ. Soon we were hugging sophie_manx, our house sitter, and devouring plates of New Mexican food at our local restaurant. The trip was over. It would be back to the old routine starting tomorrow. All that remains are the memories...and the huge credit card bill to come! *lol*